Recent News and Events

Please see below for the TaSSC news and updates. [Last revised March 2024].

April 2024

Congratulations to Antoine Lebeaut!! Antoine successfully defended his dissertation project, entitled "An Integrated Personalized Feedback Intervention for Hazardous Drinkers with Elevated Anxiety Sensitivity and Subclinical PTSD." This project was funded by a NIAAA F31 Fellowship with additional funding support from the National Register of Health Service Psychologists.

March 2024

Congratulations to Kayla Hall!! Kayla was awarded the Aviles-Johnson Fellowship to support her doctoral studies at Texas A&M University for up to five years.
Welcome to Kayla Hall and Aniqua Salwa!! Kayla and Aniqua will be joining our team as clinical psychology doctoral students starting in the Fall 2024 semester. We are grateful to have you both on board!!
Congratulations to Antoine Lebeaut!! Antoine accepted a postdoctoral position at the University of Washington. We are very excited to see all you will do next!

February 2024

Congratulations to Nate Healy! Nate matched for pre-doctoral clinical psychology internship at the VA Long Beach Healthcare System. So happy for you!!
Congratulations to Sam Leonard! Sam matched for pre-doctoral clinical psychology internship at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. So happy for you!!
Welcome to Kasey Stanley!! Kasey joined us as a full-time Research Assistant, after graduating from Texas A&M University with a degree in psychology. We are very excited to have you on the team!

January 2024

Congratulations to Savannah Woller!! Savannah successfully defended her Master's thesis, entitled "PTSD Symptoms, Suicidal Ideation, and Suicidal Behaviors among University Students: The Mediating Role of Shame."
Congratulations to Maya Zegel!! Maya accepted a postdoctoral position with the Advanced Fellowship in Addiction Treatment at the VA Boston Healthcare System. We are very excited to see all you will do next!

November 2023

Congratulations to Morgan Phillips! Morgan successfully defended her Master's thesis, entitled "Alexithymia Moderates the Association of Racial Trauma and Negative Emotionality." Morgan's primary thesis advisor is Dr. Rheeda Walker of the University of Houston.
Congratulations to Shelby McGrew!! Shelby received the Outstanding Student Achievement Award from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies at the annual conference in Los Angeles, CA. Pictured (with award): Shelby McGrew.
The TaSSC team attended and presented at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies conference.
- Reyes, L.D., Ferrie, M.L., Smit, T., Vujanovic, A. A., Zvolensky, M. J., & Raines, A. M. (2023). PTSD and barriers to quitting drinking among Black American community adults: The mediating role of emotion dysregulation. Poster session presented at the 39th annual meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Los Angeles, CA.

- Shapiro, M. O., Reyes, L., Raines, A. M., Vujanovic, A. A., & Zvolensky, M. J. (2023, November). PTSD and alcohol use: The mediating role of perceived barriers to quitting drinking. Poster session presented at the 39th annual International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies meeting, Los Angeles, CA.

- Leonard, S. J. & Vujanovic, A. A.* (2023). Associations of insecure adult attachment style, trauma-related social cognition, and emotion regulation difficulties with PTSD symptom severity among first responders. Poster session presented at the 39th annual International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies meeting, Los Angeles, CA.

The TaSSC team attended and presented at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Conference in Seattle, WA. Pictured (left to right): Kayla Hall, Nate Healy, Shelby McGrew, Savannah Woller, and Antoine Lebeaut.
- Lebeaut, A., Zegel, M., Steinberg, L., Zvolensky, M. J., & Vujanovic, A. A.* (2023). The development and initial validation of the Trauma-Related Alcohol Use Coping Measure (TRAC). Poster session presented at the 57th annual Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies convention, Seattle, WA.
- Woller, S. J., & Vujanovic, A. A.* (2023). Posttraumatic stress and suicidal ideation and risk among university students: Exploring the role of shame. Poster session presented at the 57th annual Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies convention, Seattle, WA.
- McGrew, S. J., Woller, S. J., Phillips, M., Walker, R. L., & Vujanovic, A. A.* (2023). Examining posttraumatic stress, discriminatory stress, and alcohol use among women. Poster session presented at the 57th annual Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies convention, Seattle, WA.
- Lubin, R. E., Parsons, M. E., Smit, T., Vujanovic, A. A., Zvolensky, M. J., & Otto, M. W. (2023). Associations between anxiety sensitivity and sleep disturbances in adults with probable PTSD and alcohol use disorder. Poster session presented at the 57th annual Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies convention, Seattle, WA.

October 2023

Congratulations to Sam Leonard!! Sam successfully proposed his dissertation, entitled "Associations of Insecure Adult Attachment style, Trauma-Related Social Cognition, and Emotion Regulation Difficulties with PTSD Symptom Severity among First Responders Who Served During Hurricane Harvey."
Congratulations to Nate Healy and Sam Leonard for submitting their internship applications!! We are so excited to see what you will do next!

September 2023

Welcome to Kayla Hall!! Kayla joins us as Research Program Coordinator! We are so fortunate to have her on board as a leader during this important time of transition.
Welcome to Darya Vitus! Darya joined the TaSSC as a third-year doctoral student in the Texas A&M University clinical psychology doctoral program.
Dr. Anka Vujanovic was appointed Associate Editor of the European Journal of Psychotraumatology.

August 2023

The Trauma and Stress Studies Center moved to Texas A&M University!
With Dr. Vujanovic’s transition to Texas A&M University, the First Responder Consortium was developed as an expansion of the First Responder Program. Dr. Vujanovic and Dr. Elizabeth Anderson-Fletcher of the University of Houston are excited to continue their collaboration to improve first responder behavioral health.
Welcome to Aggieland, Shelby McGrew and Savannah Woller! You make people and places better, and we are deeply grateful that you have made the transition with us to Texas A&M University.
Dr. Anka Vujanovic was appointed Editor of StressPoints, the online newsletter of the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies.

May 2023

Congratulations to Sam Leonard on another first-author publication!
- Leonard, S. J., McGrew, S. J., Lebeaut, A., & Vujanovic, A. A. (2023). PTSD symptom severity and alcohol use among firefighters: The role of emotion regulation difficulties. Journal of Dual Diagnosis.

April 2023

In collaboration with Dr. Sudie Back's team at the Medical University of South Carolina, our team has been awarded a $3.5M grant award from the NIH/NIAAA (MPI: Vujanovic, Back) to conduct a 5-year, multi-site randomized clinical trial. The project is entitled "Integration of Cognitive Processing Therapy and Relapse Prevention for Alcohol Use Disorder and Co-Occurring PTSD: A Randomized Clinical Trial." We are so excited and grateful for the opportunity to do this work with such amazing collaborators, including Drs. Debra Kaysen, Julianne Flanagan, Sonya Norman, Joy Schmitz, Patti Resick, Lyndsey Zoller, and Paul Nietert.
Congratulations to Maya Zegel! She was awarded the Research Excellence Award from the UH Clinical Psychology Program!
Congratulations to Savannah Woller! She successfully proposed her M.A. thesis, entitled “PTSD Symptoms, Suicidal Ideation, and Suicidal Behaviors among University Students: The Mediating Role of Shame.”
Congratulations to Isabelle Parra-Valencia! Isabelle has accepted a full-time research assistant position with the Houston Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety (IQuESt) at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, TX. Incredibly well-deserved – we’re all so proud of you, Isabelle!
Congratulations to Maya Zegel on another first-author publication!
- Zegel, M., Leonard, S. J., McGrew, S. J., & Vujanovic, A. A. (2023). Firefighter relationship satisfaction: Associations with mental health outcomes. American Journal of Family Therapy.

March 2023

Our team was honored to present preliminary findings of our project, "Hurricane Harvey and First Responder Behavioral Health," to EM-Solutions and the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office:
- Vujanovic, A. A., Leonard, S. J., Healy, N. A., McGrew, S. J., Woller, S. J., & Anderson-Fletcher, E. A. (2023). Hurricane Harvey and first responder behavioral health. Invited presentation conducted at the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office, Humble, TX.
Congratulations to Antoine Lebeaut on another first-author publication!
- Lebeaut, A., Pedersen, E. R., Francis, D. J., Zvolensky, M. J., & Vujanovic, A. A. (2023). Evaluation of an integrated personalized feedback intervention for hazardous drinkers with elevated anxiety sensitivity and PTSD symptoms: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conctc.2023.101088
Congratulations to Shelby McGrew on another first-author publication!
- McGrew, S. J., Raines, A. M., Viana, A. G., & Vujanovic, A. A. (2023). Posttraumatic stress and alcohol use among Hispanic/Latina survivors of interpersonal trauma: Associations with anxiety sensitivity and distress tolerance. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0001453
Congratulations to Sam Leonard on another first-author publication!
- Leonard, S., Zegel, M., Venta, A., & Vujanovic, A. A. (2023). Insecure adult attachment style and PTSD symptom severity among firefighters: The role of distress tolerance. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment, and Trauma, 32, 592-610. doi: 10.1080/10926771.2022.207868

February 2023

Congratulations to Maya Zegel! She will be attending the pre-doctoral internship program at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial VA Medical Center in Bedford, MA.
Congratulations to Antoine Lebeaut! He will be attending the pre-doctoral internship program at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, WA.
Congratulations to Isabelle Parra-Valencia! Isabelle is an undergraduate research assistant with the TaSSC and was selected as an Undergraduate Student Research Competition Finalist by the Southwestern Psychological Association (SWPA) for her presentation, entitled “Discrimination and Latinx Mental Health: Examining Resilience and Shame.” She will present her work at the upcoming SWPA conference in March. Way to go, Isabelle!
Congratulations to Antoine Lebeaut! Antoine has published another first-author manuscript:
- Lebeaut, A., Zegel, M., Leonard, S. J., Healy, N. A., Anderson-Fletcher, E. A., & Vujanovic, A. A. (in press). COVID-19-related medical vulnerability and mental health outcomes among U.S. first responders. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

January 2023

Nate Healy presented at the 2023 Fire Department Saftey Officers Association Health and Safety Conference & First Responder Center for Excellence Health and Wellness Symposium in St. Pete Beach, FL. His presentation was entitled "The Realities of Firefighter Suicide: Risk Factors, Mechanisms, and Implications".

Page updated

Report abuse